Drunk men ‘carjack’ lone driver in Rye

A man feared he was going to be beaten or robbed after a group of drunk men forced their way into his car in Rye.

He was driving home to Brighton after visiting his parents at Camber Sands when the terrifying incident unfolded in Fishmarket Road on Sunday evening.

His father Steve said: “At the roundabout a man was standing in the middle of the road and he could not get past him. He stopped his car and the moment he pulled up these other men opened the passenger door and started piling in the car.”

The group told the driver their car had broken down and they needed a lift home.

He asked the men to leave but they refused.

They told him to drive down winding country lanes, not telling him where they were headed, leaving the 23-year-old fearing he was going to be beaten or robbed.

Steve said: “He was driving around for nearly two hours.

“They were taking him round back lanes and everything and he was nearly out of petrol.”

The young motorist humoured the men, who eventually got out of the car at East Peckham.

The police were called and they met the driver at Crowborough before he was taken to Uckfield Police Station.

Steve said: “We were shocked when we heard about this and obviously had a bad night’s sleep worrying about the effect it had on him.”

He added: “He’s trying to regard it with a bit of humour now.

“It’s relief that it was over without any harm coming to him.

“That’s his way of dealing with his own shock at it.”

The incident was reported to police, but a spokesman said, after speaking to the driver, officers decided no crime has been committed.

Steve said: “If he had been robbed, beaten up or stabbed it would have been different matter.”

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “This report of a carjacking in Fishmarket Road, Rye, at 8pm on Sunday (September 27) has been investigated and the informant interviewed by police.

“He told officers that he stopped as there was a man in the road and agreed to give a group of four adults and a child a lift as they had broken down.

“They did not threaten him or make any demands.

“He thought it would only be a few miles and was too polite to refuse them.

“During the journey they stopped at a garage and bought him drinks and food in east Peckham and then he drove them to their homes.

“They thanked him and offered to pay for his fuel which he declined.

“Officers concluded that no crime had been committed.”

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